Survivors: No Parole For Speck

September 3, 1987|By United Press International

JOLIET, ILL. — Thirty angry and weeping relatives and friends of eight student nurses slain by Richard Speck 21 years ago in a savage slaughter that shocked the nation castigated the mass killer at a parole hearing Wednesday as a butcher who might kill again.

Speck, 45, for the fifth time, refused to face his accusers at the parole hearing. The three-member review board meeting at the maximum-security Stateville Correctional Center, where Speck has lived the past 21 years, indicated the full 10-member board would issue its parole decision Sept. 9.

''The parole of Richard Speck would devalue life as sure as he devalued the life of those eight women,'' said Ellen Stannish, one of 11 former classmates of the slain women, who also appeared before the board.

''To me it's absurd that parole is even an option,'' Marilyn Farris, who lost a 21-year-old daughter to Speck, told the review board as she choked back tears.

''What a cruel thing it would be to the memory of these girls if parole was approved,'' said Carol Jordan, whose sister was killed by Speck.

Speck was convicted of killing the eight women after breaking into their Chicago townhouse in July 1966.

Corazon Amurao, a 22-year-old Filipino exchange student who survived the bloodbath by hiding under a bed as Speck stabbed and strangled his victims one by one, did not attend.